The international conference "Ancient History from Below: Possibilities and Challenges", held in the Department of History of the University of São Paulo between March 22 and 23, 2018, aimed to promote reflection and debate on the challenges involved in writing an Ancient History from below and especially on the possibilities, sources and methods open to scholars of the ancient world for such an enterprise. Preceded by an introduction by the lead organizer, the following nine communications were collected in five thematic sessions. Each communication lasted 30 minutes and was then commented by a respondent chosen among the members of the group or of the scientific committee of the event. The debate time in each session, lasting 45 minutes, provided a profitable debate of ideas for the continuity of the group's research. Seven of the speakers attended the Nicolau Sevcenko Auditorium and two speakers (Cristina Rosillo-Lopez and Kim Bowes) presented their communications by videoconference. The debates focused on three themes: the relationship between language and practice, the balance between agency and structure in the study of subaltern groups and who would be the "below" in an Ancient History from below.
The event was funded by the São Paulo Resarch Foundation (FAPESP) and the Post-Graduation Program in Social History of the University of São Paulo. It benefited from the technical support of the Technical Information Service of Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo, which made possible the live webcast and the recording of the event, now available on YouTube. This was the first conference of the Subaltern and the Popular in Antiquity Research Group. Our second meeting will take place in June 2021 in Aix-en-Provence.
